I must say that this is not my go-to genre but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It does feel that Shirley Jackson has crafted a fantastic piece of literature - every character, including the house, all their thoughts and actions very deliberate and packaged so well together. It all seems heavy with meaning and connections which I loved unpicking. I have just listened to the related 'On the Road with Penguin Classics' podcast which was a fantastic accompaniment to the book. Oh -and I really wanted Mrs Montague to be haunted! Certainly a book I only read during the day - fantastically spooky.
I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Yes – it would have been satisfying for Mrs Montague to get a good scare. And thank you so much for listening to the podcast!
Very much enjoyed re-reading this again, and so interesting to read other people's comments on it. I like Mrs Montague as a sort of a clumsy comic relief, not least because of her total failure at trying to impose some kind of order on events. In fact, the more she tries to bend the house and its inhabitants to her will, the more the house simply refuses and bends away. There's also so much to unpack in the triangular relationship between the Montagues and Arthur.
The other aspect I wanted to talk about is how much Eleanor moves away from the rest of the characters towards the end of the novel. She seems to develop into a relationship with the house, at the expense of her relationship with the others. At one point, I found myself questioning whether all the supernatural events depicted were entirely within Eleanor's mind, and that in fact we were reading an account of her descent into mental illness. This, I think, is mirrored in her descriptions of the house physically moving, often with her, to the extent that she feels unable to move herself, literally becoming part of the house. She describes herself as happy there - and does she at one point imagine it as home? By her own admission, she has nowhere else to go at the end of the novel, no home to go to. She does not want to leave, and I think there is a sense that she cannot but turn the wheel of the car at the end. It's not so much that the house will not let her leave, as that there is nothing either she or the house can do about it: it was fated from the very beginning. And perhaps this is the scariest aspect of all - that we are powerless in the face of our own destiny.
I really enjoyed reading this Henry! Similarly not my go-to genre, and I was surprised at how well rounded the characters were and how interestingly she explored the relationships between them all. I think I was expecting a silly, classic ghost story with apparitions popping out from bookcases every five minutes, but it was a lot more unsettling and dark than that! Do also totally agree with you about Mrs Montague - it was like she'd walked out of a 1970s studio sitcom and into Hill House by mistake. Not that I didn't enjoy the comic relief! Thanks for recommending Henry!
Heavy allusuons to spiritual ritual: the idea of participating in the life of the house with its architect & other inhabitants somehow still alive & active there. It's like a sick "communion with the saints in Heaven."
...I heard online audiobooke. I thought that the Brutish voices sounded good. But I wasn't convinced thar the mentality of midcentury America was well captured. The English sound too worldly; lacks that naive, optimistic openness which today seems "kitchy." I think it makes a difference.
Brilliant book. Really enjoyed it. And thanks for your insights. When you pointed out that the house had been described as "motherly", it was like a light bulb for me. Of course... Just as Eleanor's life had been totally taken up, sucked dry even, by her mother, so she would be absorbed by Hill House, which assumes the nurturing but also terrifying and disciplining role of the mother-figure. Drawing on what we're told (and on what we can guess by reading between the lines), we understand that Eleanor's mother was a fairly dictatorial woman who laid down all the rules, and allowed her daughter no life of her own. The resentment and guilt-about-resentment that Eleanor has accrued over her life also explain her vicious thoughts towards Theodora, who occasionally adopts a motherly attitude towards her. I read somewhere that Jackson's relations with her mother were not good. If THOHH is anything to go by, then I would say REALLY not good... Anyway, thanks again! And -- along the lines of the upcoming read-and-drink-along -- maybe if you do THOHH again, it should be a read-and-eat-along. Mrs Dudley's offerings sound pretty good to me :)
Such great comments! Yes the house as devouring mother feels very rich . . . And you're absolutely right - Jackson had a complex relationship with her mother, who was extremely critical of her appearance and life choices. She once wrote a long letter to her mother, setting out how she felt, but she never sent it.
Gosh- what a beautiful, harrowing book! It was so unsettling watching Eleanor's experience diverge from that of the others - and seeing their unwillingness to apprehend that; their belief that she could simply be sent away, despite all they know of the house's history...
I liked the comedy of Mrs Montague! It felt like another surprising ingredient in an already strange cocktail of forces and emotions. She becomes an important witness, too, showing us explicitly that the hauntings, with all their noise and violence, are not objective phenomena.
I'm so glad you enjoyed it! And great point about Mrs Montague - you're so right about her being another witness. Her lack of connection with the house makes Eleanor's all the more spooky by contrast . . .
I love love loved this book! When I was in school we read some Shirley Jackson, the lottery and a few others. I don’t remember liking them very much but now I’m convinced I was simply too young for it. That’s the trouble I guess, they only get you for a little while so they want to infuse you with as much great stuff as they can but your mind isn’t developed enough to appreciate it. After reading haunting of hell, House, I can’t wait to revisit all the old stories!
I'm so thrilled! Yes – it's a shame that we're sometimes put off classics at school – books can seem so different at different times of life! Thanks for sharing.
I am nearly finished and will get back to comment. So far, thoroughly being scared by how descriptive her writing is. I do have a phobia about corridors, and hallways. So I can hear the tensions of the opening and closing of the doors. To think , the design of his house was based on how his mind works. I can only read this during the day. My husband says my face is “ a picture” and no way he will read the book!
Wonderful! I hope you keep enjoying it. It would be fascinating to study people's faces as they read different books. Reading is so intimate and immersive we're at our most open and unguarded . . .
Thank you for sharing your insight this month. This was not my normal read, but I did enjoy it. My favorite aspect was Shirley Jackson descriptive language about Hill House.
I must say that this is not my go-to genre but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It does feel that Shirley Jackson has crafted a fantastic piece of literature - every character, including the house, all their thoughts and actions very deliberate and packaged so well together. It all seems heavy with meaning and connections which I loved unpicking. I have just listened to the related 'On the Road with Penguin Classics' podcast which was a fantastic accompaniment to the book. Oh -and I really wanted Mrs Montague to be haunted! Certainly a book I only read during the day - fantastically spooky.
I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Yes – it would have been satisfying for Mrs Montague to get a good scare. And thank you so much for listening to the podcast!
Very much enjoyed re-reading this again, and so interesting to read other people's comments on it. I like Mrs Montague as a sort of a clumsy comic relief, not least because of her total failure at trying to impose some kind of order on events. In fact, the more she tries to bend the house and its inhabitants to her will, the more the house simply refuses and bends away. There's also so much to unpack in the triangular relationship between the Montagues and Arthur.
The other aspect I wanted to talk about is how much Eleanor moves away from the rest of the characters towards the end of the novel. She seems to develop into a relationship with the house, at the expense of her relationship with the others. At one point, I found myself questioning whether all the supernatural events depicted were entirely within Eleanor's mind, and that in fact we were reading an account of her descent into mental illness. This, I think, is mirrored in her descriptions of the house physically moving, often with her, to the extent that she feels unable to move herself, literally becoming part of the house. She describes herself as happy there - and does she at one point imagine it as home? By her own admission, she has nowhere else to go at the end of the novel, no home to go to. She does not want to leave, and I think there is a sense that she cannot but turn the wheel of the car at the end. It's not so much that the house will not let her leave, as that there is nothing either she or the house can do about it: it was fated from the very beginning. And perhaps this is the scariest aspect of all - that we are powerless in the face of our own destiny.
Great comments - thank you Andrew!
I really enjoyed reading this Henry! Similarly not my go-to genre, and I was surprised at how well rounded the characters were and how interestingly she explored the relationships between them all. I think I was expecting a silly, classic ghost story with apparitions popping out from bookcases every five minutes, but it was a lot more unsettling and dark than that! Do also totally agree with you about Mrs Montague - it was like she'd walked out of a 1970s studio sitcom and into Hill House by mistake. Not that I didn't enjoy the comic relief! Thanks for recommending Henry!
Ha ha! Yes! That's exactly how she seems. I'm so glad you enjoyed it!
Thoughts:
Heavy allusuons to spiritual ritual: the idea of participating in the life of the house with its architect & other inhabitants somehow still alive & active there. It's like a sick "communion with the saints in Heaven."
...I heard online audiobooke. I thought that the Brutish voices sounded good. But I wasn't convinced thar the mentality of midcentury America was well captured. The English sound too worldly; lacks that naive, optimistic openness which today seems "kitchy." I think it makes a difference.
...thanks again! Enjoyed this.
Fascinating - I hadn't thought about it as a ritual, but I do see what you mean!
Brilliant book. Really enjoyed it. And thanks for your insights. When you pointed out that the house had been described as "motherly", it was like a light bulb for me. Of course... Just as Eleanor's life had been totally taken up, sucked dry even, by her mother, so she would be absorbed by Hill House, which assumes the nurturing but also terrifying and disciplining role of the mother-figure. Drawing on what we're told (and on what we can guess by reading between the lines), we understand that Eleanor's mother was a fairly dictatorial woman who laid down all the rules, and allowed her daughter no life of her own. The resentment and guilt-about-resentment that Eleanor has accrued over her life also explain her vicious thoughts towards Theodora, who occasionally adopts a motherly attitude towards her. I read somewhere that Jackson's relations with her mother were not good. If THOHH is anything to go by, then I would say REALLY not good... Anyway, thanks again! And -- along the lines of the upcoming read-and-drink-along -- maybe if you do THOHH again, it should be a read-and-eat-along. Mrs Dudley's offerings sound pretty good to me :)
Such great comments! Yes the house as devouring mother feels very rich . . . And you're absolutely right - Jackson had a complex relationship with her mother, who was extremely critical of her appearance and life choices. She once wrote a long letter to her mother, setting out how she felt, but she never sent it.
Ooooh, sounds like Kafka and his dad...
Gosh- what a beautiful, harrowing book! It was so unsettling watching Eleanor's experience diverge from that of the others - and seeing their unwillingness to apprehend that; their belief that she could simply be sent away, despite all they know of the house's history...
I liked the comedy of Mrs Montague! It felt like another surprising ingredient in an already strange cocktail of forces and emotions. She becomes an important witness, too, showing us explicitly that the hauntings, with all their noise and violence, are not objective phenomena.
A fascinating, chilling read- thank you, Henry!
I'm so glad you enjoyed it! And great point about Mrs Montague - you're so right about her being another witness. Her lack of connection with the house makes Eleanor's all the more spooky by contrast . . .
Agree wholeheartedly with Heidi. Thanks for this read-along Henry. Thoroughly enjoyable.
I love love loved this book! When I was in school we read some Shirley Jackson, the lottery and a few others. I don’t remember liking them very much but now I’m convinced I was simply too young for it. That’s the trouble I guess, they only get you for a little while so they want to infuse you with as much great stuff as they can but your mind isn’t developed enough to appreciate it. After reading haunting of hell, House, I can’t wait to revisit all the old stories!
I'm so thrilled! Yes – it's a shame that we're sometimes put off classics at school – books can seem so different at different times of life! Thanks for sharing.
I am nearly finished and will get back to comment. So far, thoroughly being scared by how descriptive her writing is. I do have a phobia about corridors, and hallways. So I can hear the tensions of the opening and closing of the doors. To think , the design of his house was based on how his mind works. I can only read this during the day. My husband says my face is “ a picture” and no way he will read the book!
Wonderful! I hope you keep enjoying it. It would be fascinating to study people's faces as they read different books. Reading is so intimate and immersive we're at our most open and unguarded . . .
Thank you for sharing your insight this month. This was not my normal read, but I did enjoy it. My favorite aspect was Shirley Jackson descriptive language about Hill House.
It's beautifully written, isn't it?
The ending absolutely surprised me.